


He Is A Demon

by swagnushammersmith



Category: Fables - Willingham, The Wolf Among Us
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Demons, Demons, F/M, Halloween, Hell, Lordi - Freeform, Satan - Freeform, Slow Burn, Song Title Based Off A Lordi Tune, adramelech - Freeform, oujia boards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 07:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3886795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swagnushammersmith/pseuds/swagnushammersmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based a prompt from OTPPrompts.tumblr.com. Snow goes to a Halloween party with low expectations, and comes out with a lot more than she bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ouija

Snow wasn't sure why she agreed to this Halloween party, anyways. Her sister Rose pestered her to come and “learn how to have some fun! Wear a costume!” even though Snow knew she was capable of having fun in her own way. After rejecting Rose's invitation several times, Snow sighed. “Look, if I come along, will you shut up and leave me to my homework?" she asked. "This assignment is due in 2 hours and I'd like to get it done before then.” Rose nodded with excitement and left Snow to herself after that.

Fast forward to the party. Snow passed on wearing a costume and found herself making friends with the wall. She that saw while she did that, her sister's friends and classmates chattered, danced, and drank. Of course someone she knew from a class or in her major department would walk by every now and again and ask how she was doing. That got really boring really quick.

She could see a girl named Mary in a corner of the room talking with a few sketchy looking people that she didn't know. She had red makeup streaks down her face and her clothing was a little torn. One of her friends in the corner with her was having a little bit of a hard time guessing what her costume was supposed to be. Mary visibly got tired of waiting for him to guess and said, “I'm Bloody Mary, get it?” A collective “ohhhhh” could be heard all around the room.

After having checked Facebook on her phone for the seven-millionth time, Snow got fed up with the party and wanted to leave. She couldn't even remember the last time that she celebrated Halloween. Sure, it was fun trick or treating as a child, but Snow wasn't a child nor did she have much taste for candy anymore. 

She found Rose sitting on her boyfriend Jack's lap. “Hey, Rose, I’m ready to go,” she said, disregarding Jack’s presence. Snow never liked Jack; he was a compulsive liar, a thief, and gross all around. Snow felt like Rose was dating him mostly to piss her off.

“Why, though?” Rose complained, leaning her forehead against Jack’s. “The party’s barely started!”

“Yeah, Snow,” Jack said, “you’ve just been over there by the wall being miserable this whole time. Why don’t you try to have some fun?”

Snow sighed in frustration. “Why don’t you go be annoying somewhere else, Jack?”

“But I’m having so much fun being annoying right here.” Snow wished that she could just slap that smug-ass smirk off his face. 

“Don’t be all mopey, Snow!” Rose said. “Have you even talked to anyone while you’ve been here?”

“Plenty,” Snow said. “I’m just tired and I want to go now.”

Rose shrugged. “I’m having plenty of fun, why don’t you w--”

Mary's voice boomed across the living room, interrupting the conversation. “What do you guys say we make this party a little more interesting?” Everyone turned toward Mary, curiosity painted across their faces. “I have a Ouija board upstairs. We should try summoning a demon with it.” Mary’s eyes glowed with excitement when she made the suggestion, which unsettled everyone.

Almost everyone, anyways. “That won’t work, Mary,” Snow said with firm disbelief in her voice. “You can’t summon a demon with a board, or anything, because they don’t exist.”

“What’s wrong, Snow?” Mary teased. “Mad that you’re not having any fun so you wanna make sure no one else does either?”

“I’m just saying,” Snow said as she walked right up to Mary, “you can’t summon something that doesn’t exist. This is nothing more than a foolish game.” She crossed her arms, feeling so sure of herself.

“Well then, if you wanna give us a demonstration on how much it won’t work, then please be my guest.” Mary turned around to fetch her Ouija board, without allowing Snow another word in the conversation.

Soon Snow found herself knelt on the floor before Mary’s Ouija board, with four black candles placed on each corner. Mary gave Snow the full instructions for the ritual to take place. Despite feeling so sure that this wouldn’t work, Snow still felt uneasy about the idea of trying to summon a demon. Nonetheless, here she sat, with a lighter in her hand and a Satanic chant on a paper in front of her. The rest of the attending party stood around her with anticipation.

“We don’t have all night, dear,” Mary said. “Are you gonna do this or what?”

“Yeah, Snow!” Rose said. “It’s Halloween, so it’s like, the best time to do this!”

“Shut up, both of you,” Snow said. “I’m going to do it. To prove that this is just a silly game.”

Snow took a deep breath and finally went to work. 

_This won’t work, it will be fine._ she thought to herself.

First, she lit each of the candles on the corners of the board.

_It won’t work._

Once she made sure they were burning well, she picked up the paper to read the chant required for the ritual to work.

_It won’t work. So why are you so worried?_

“In nomine Dei Nosstri, Satanas Luciferi excelsi. In nomine Dei Nosstri, Satanas Luciferi excelsi. In nomine Dei Nosstri, Satanas Luciferi excelsi.”

After the final repetition of the chant, everyone held their breath. The earth seemed to stand still for a minute as they all anxiously looked around for any falling vases or portals to the underworld opening up in the floor. Rose and Jack exchanged nervous glances and others were slowly stepping towards the nearest exit. Mary seemed to be the only one excited at the thought of a demon coming into her home as she stood in front of everyone. 

Nothing happened after a few minutes, however.

“Well then,” Snow said as she stood up. “ That was fun, I’m gonna leave now. Let’s go, Rose.”

Everyone looked after Snow as she started to walk away.

“You should at least dismiss the demon, Snow,” Mary called after her.

“What demon?” Snow asked, looking back.

“The one that’s gonna follow you home if you don’t dismiss it properly.”

Snow shook her head. “I’m so scared, Mary. If there is actually a demon that follows me home, you’ll hear about it from me. Or, not. Whatever.” With that, Snow confidently walked out of the house to her car. Rose scurried behind her.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

\------------------

“You were a real buzzkill back there, Snow,” Rose said as she brushed her hair out in front of the bathroom mirror. “We didn’t even get to do any of the fun games!”

“Next time don’t drag me to a party I never wanted to go to in the first place,” Snow said, crawling into bed. She had about enough excitement for a day and wanted to be able to wake up in the morning.

Rose walked out of the bathroom shaking her head. “I thought you’d be able to have some fun!”

“It wasn’t exactly fun knowing that Jack and Mary were there,” Snow said, making sure to add a bit of venom into Jack’s name.

“Get over it, Snow. God you’re so uptight.” Rose turned off the light in the room and crawled into her own bed.

Snow huffed as she turned over in her sheets and went to sleep.

A few hours later, Snow woke up to nature’s call. She cursed herself for drinking water before bed as she got up and walked to the bathroom. She made sure close the door as to not wake Rose. Rose always got grumpy when deprived of sleep.

Snow turned the light off before opening the bathroom door again. She was scared shitless to find someone standing in front of her as soon as she walked out.


	2. Welcome to Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Maebmin and Sakura-addict25 for betaing!

There were two ways you could get into Hell. The obvious route to Hell was for an individual to live a condemnable, unfulfilled life. Religious affiliation was never a factor in one’s damnability, no. Instead, you would stand before the Gatekeepers of the Afterlife. They looked through your life and all the choices you'd made. Should they find enough reason to keep you from an eternity of reward, you would be kicked to an eternity of torture and pain. The Gatekeepers weighed their decisions fairly, and no one dared to question their standards.

The other route to Hell was simple; you could be born there. Demons, the Devil’s Advocates, are born there. To be born in Hell is more favorable than to wind up in damnation, because Demons have the luxury of delivering pain and living eternally.

There are many things Demons are capable of in Hell; some deliver unceasing tortures to those that deserve it, some are at the Devil’s right hand, others are granted the ability to go to the Surface World and haunt, or do the bidding of humans that called for them.

Others were relegated to the more tedious tasks that Hell demanded. Bigby was one such Demon. He fueled the Hellfire that tortured the souls of the damned and comforted the souls that were born in Hell. Since he was a Hellbreather, he was granted with great lung power. Flames from his breath to keep the blazes alive, and wind from his lungs to spread them. His wolfish demeanor intimidated the souls of the damned as he would tread his way around the underworld, though he never touched them. The Hellfire was his duty, and it was all he ever knew. Once a Demon was born in Hell, they were immediately sent to whatever duty they were destined for for eternity. It wasn’t all bad for Bigby, though. Every endless day he would make his rounds breathing more life into the Hellfire, he got to watch the interesting sights that it offered. He would laugh as he watched a diverse array of tortures be delivered to the forever cursed souls that walked the wide path. Sometimes the walls of the underworld would reflect the fire’s light in beautiful patterns that were hard for Bigby to describe.

And there was Bigby’s most favorite thing: listening to the stories of the Demons that got to roam the Surface World. Humans were interesting creatures. From what he gathered, they were selfish and arrogant, with little concept of consequence. It made it all the more hilarious for him to watch them be tortured until their souls gave in to the weight of their punishments. To see them burn and weep as they lamented every mistake where it was too late fix them.

But yet some of the stories the other Demons shared painted a different portrait of humans. One Demon, named Gren, often talked about this human named Holly. He spoke of her with a fondness that Bigby never knew Demons could hold for these arrogant creatures. She called for a Demon at first because she was desperate for love and lonely, and he was the one that came to her. He visited her often and brought her comfort from her loneliness. Gren shared how she would talk to him about her life, her struggles. How she was so exhausted pretending to be strong and without care when she would spend many a night crying herself to sleep. The other Demons would laugh at him as he would smile and talk about how he looked forward to his visits with Holly and bring her comfort.

And it was these sort of situations that perplexed Demons about the nature of humans. They so often encountered the arrogant and the reckless human that they had come to understand that all humans lived in such a way. But then came along stories like Gren’s that made Demons curious of what humans were like, if not truly arrogant.

But the Demons weren’t here to learn; none of them were. They had their duties, and they knew that they had to stick to them to maintain the balance that Hell required. It didn’t stop Bigby from wishing he could see the Surface World and experience humans himself, however.

Bigby was dutifully fueling the flames, as he passed the Demons that got to haunt the Surface World and heard them sharing stories as they usually did.

“Hey, Bigby!” Gren called. Bigby turned his head in response. “You should come over and get a load of what Bluebeard was tellin’ me just a sec ago!”

Bigby smiled with excitement as he got closer to the crowd of Surface Walkers. They loved to share their stories with other Demons. Sometimes being a Hellbreather had its advantages. When one of the Surface Walkers called you over to indulge them , you knew it was going to be a great story to behold.

“Gren, Bluebeard,” Bigby greeted. “How’s your little human doing, Gren?”

“She’s fine,” Gren said, “but hey, Bluebeard, tell him. It was so funny when you said it.”

“Oh since you asked so nicely,” Bluebeard, the Demon in question, said with flattery in his voice. “I came through the Hellmouth to see that a young human called, right? The young ones are always so much fun to play with. And when I appeared before it, its face went pale in an instant. So of course it didn’t think that its summons would be truly successful.”

“Those are the stupid ones, right there,” Gren said.

“Anyways, I introduce myself and ask for what purpose the human summoned me. It goes, ‘Well I need you to teach this girl Ashley at my school a lesson!’ ‘Why should I do that?’ I asked it. ‘Because, she made fun of me for liking Blood On the Dancefloor-’ whatever that means, ‘-and she needs to learn that just because her taste in music sucks doesn’t mean she can take it out on other people.’”

“Oh wow,” Bigby said.

“And so I asked it, ‘What kind of lesson did you have in mind for this Ashley?’ This human made it obvious that it didn’t think about that before it summoned me, and so it just blurted out the first thing that came to its mind.”

“What did it say?” Bigby asked.

“It told me to kill this Ashley.” That elicited hysterical laughter from Gren and Bigby.

 

“Humans don’t know shit; they should know by now that that ain’t our job!” Gren said between laughs.

“And I immediately started to walk away, disgusted that this human wasted my time, and then it starts panicking. ‘Don’t you want to help me?’ this human said. ‘Isn’t this what demons are supposed to do?’ And I didn’t answer it, I just left.”

“Holy shit, Bluebeard,” Bigby said.

“I know! The gall of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was stupid enough to try calling for us again and make the same idiotic request.”

“If it wanted someone dead so bad, it shoulda called for a poltergeist or something. The Surface is crawlin’ with those things itchin’ to feel somethin’ or understand what went wrong with them.”

“A poltergeist?” Bigby asked.

“They’re spirits of humans that are still chained to the Surface World,” Bluebeard answered. “It’s almost a sadder sight to see than the wretched beings that get sent down here. Almost.”

“They get distracting sometimes when you’re tryna get something done,” Gren said. “It gets real annoying when I’m talkin’ to Holly and then next thing you know there’s loud ass screeching outside the window.”

“You love when that human calls you, Gren,” Bigby teased, crossing his arms. "You talk about it enough."

“Holly’s a great human is all.”

“Sometimes I long for a pet human of my own like yours,” Bluebeard said. “I grow tired of the calls I have to answer sometimes.”

“Why don’t I go up there for you sometime, Bluebeard? Deal with the tedious humans for you,” Bigby said, half-joking. Truthfully, he wished he could see what it was like on the Surface, because the other Demons made it sound so interesting.

“As much as I would love for you to deal with them, you wouldn’t even know the first thing about travelling through the Hellmouth.”

“Yeah, Bigby,” Gren said. “It’s a lot more than just walkin’ in and walkin’ out.”

“Oh please, I’ve watched you guys do it loads of times.”

“You’d have to know how to follow the specific energy signature that’s calling for you,” Bluebeard said. 

“You guys could show me.”

Bluebeard laughed. “As if.”

“Shouldn’t you be gettin’ back to your Hellbreathin’?” Gren said.

As much as Bigby hated to admit, they were right. He was born a Hellbreather; that’s what he was supposed to do. If he waited too long to breathe life back into the flames, it would get too lukewarm, and the Demons would get uncomfortable and unable to perform their duties.

“Sorry, Bigby, but duty calls,” Bluebeard said. He waved Bigby off as he jumped up and let his wings carry him through the Hellmouth above.

“Sorry, Bigby,” Gren said as he walked away. Bigby waved him off as he, too, flew through the Hellmouth above. He sighed as he turned to continue his destined duty of Hellbreathing.


	3. Adramelech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gren briefly starts pronouncing the "g" in his "-ing" words. The reason why will shock you!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to sakura-addict25 and Marie for betaing this for me!

Bigby had a horrible itch that he never knew that he could feel. As a demon of Hell, he was immune to the pains and ailments that the underworld inflicted upon the souls of the damned. 

It was an itch within him that was hard to ignore. As he fueled the Hellfire with his lungs, the itch kept nagging him, like a young child annoying their older sibling to come play when they were doing homework. Every endless day, the itch kept prodding him, demanding attention.

The worst part was that, for so long, Bigby wasn’t sure what the itch itself was demanding, until he spoke again with Gren one day.

“Hey Gren!” Bigby called out. He caught Gren just as he was coming back from the surface.

“What’s happenin’, Bigby?” Gren called back as he descended from the Hellmouth.

“Fueling the Hellfire, as per usual,” the wolf demon replied. “How’s it on the surface?”

“Just got back from seeing Holly. We were havin’ a nice talk when the fuckin’ poltergeist came by, screechin’ again.”

“Shit, sorry there, pal.”

“It’s annoyin’ because I look like a fuckin’ idiot coverin’ my ears when Holly can’t even hear this thing go off.”

“But at least the time with Holly before the poltergeist came was good, right?”

“Yeah, it was.” A fond sparkle flickered in Gren’s eyes, and that’s when Bigby knew what was itching at him so bad. He really wanted to go to the surface. 

_Really._

**Badly.**

The interest in the Surface World only ever surfaced (no pun intended) when he spoke with other Demons that were tasked to go there. But lately, this itch was making him want to go up to the Surface World. See it for himself. Feel what cold air felt like, what it smelt like. The Demons that went to the Surface World said that the air up there felt so much colder than Hell. Bigby wanted to know what cold _felt_ like.

And the smells that the other Demons talked about. Bigby only knew the smell of his own breath, sulphuric and smoky and fiery. These were smells that he grew up with, but the itch was telling him to experience _more._

He knew he shouldn’t want this so much, however. From birth he was bound to his duty as a Hellbreather. If he dared deviate from his duty, the consequences would be dire. He would be subjected to pains much worse than what the souls of the damned had to experience. 

But-

“Bigby!” Gren shouted, much too close to Bigby’s face. “What the hell, you were dozin’ off there alluva sudden!”

“Shit, sorry, Gren,” Bigby apologized, rubbing his face.

“The hell’s wrong with you?”

“Uhm, uh-”

Before Bigby could begin to forge that thought, Gren pushed Bigby back against the wall. Bigby became confused as Gren was fixated on a sight coming their way. Once he saw what spooked Gren, however, he immediately understood.

Everyone else in that chamber of Hell cleared the way as three mules were pulling a tall rack of clothing. Two Demons in standard hooded robes stood on either side of the rack. Three more trailed it, but the second one trailing the rack was not in the standard robes.

Everyone in Hell knew Adramelech; if not from some personal connection, they knew from stories told by Demons that had at least one encounter with him. Everyone avoided directly looking at him as he passed through the chamber. As they watched his fancy, decorated tail feathers drag behind his skinny peacock legs, they were reminded that this Demon was the right hand and fashion consultant of Satan and the true ringleader of Hell where they resided. Adramelech dished out the reprimands, if a Demon let a single toe fall out of line. No one really knew what happened to the Demons that dared to go against the Commandments of Hell, except that they were never heard from again.

Despite the heat and flames that surrounded them, Bigby felt a cold chill freeze him into place. The sight alone of Adramelech was enough to terrify any Demon.

“Fuck, that guy scares the hell outta me,” Gren whispered under his breath once Adramelech was out of sight. 

Bigby didn’t respond but stood frozen in place. What was he thinking, wanting to go up to the surface? He was a Hellbreather, dammit! 

“Bigby, you alright there, pal?”

If he was truly meant to go to the surface, he would have been assigned that role!

“Biiiiigbyyyyyy.”

But, surely, one little visit wouldn’t hurt anyone, not even Adramelech, right?

“Hell-ooooo!”

Just one little visit, that’s it! Gren could-

“Hey, moron!” Bigby came back to his senses, when the sight of hands clapping directly in his face startled him.

“Shit, Gren, what was that for?”

“You were standing there lookin’ more stupid than ya normally do, asshole.”

“Sorry, I just…” Bigby sighed. “Lost in thought.”

“Coulda fooled me there.”

“Listen, I-” Bigby momentarily faltered, fear creeping up his throat and forcing him to betray his desires. He quickly swallowed it down, however, and asked in moment of boldness, “I was just wondering, about that conversation we had a little while back....”

“Yeah?” Gren asked, suspicious.

“I just wanted to know if you could, maybe, when you’re called to the Surface next time, maybe you could… let me go in your place?”

The bellow of “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKIN’ MIND BIGBY?” cut through the air, and bounced through what felt like the entirety of Hell.

“Now listen, Gren,” Bigby said, a little quieter this time in hopes to keep attention off of him.

“No, Bigby,” Gren argued, still a little too loud for Bigby’s liking, although not enough for the Gatekeepers to be able to hear him. “Did you not just fucking see the Chancellor of Hell pass through?”

“Yes but-”

“I absolutely do not- _ **DO FUCKING NOT** _\- want that sort of shit hanging on my goddamn shoulders, Bigby.”__

__Bigby flinched at Gren’s words. Everyone that knew Gren knew he was not going to fuck around when he actually pronounced the “g” at the end of his words ending in “-ing.” And those words painfully stung, as Bigby was not used to being on the receiving end of them. “I’m sorry, I just wasn’t-”_ _

__“You’re not thinking with your fucking head, Bigby! Think, for crying out fucking loud! You want me to end up Satan-Knows-Where for showing your dumb ass how to fly out to the Surface? And what about you, huh? You wanna throw away a good comfy-ass life here just so you can look at all the stupid humans up there? There’s plenty of them down here!”_ _

__Bigby stuttered, because the looks the two were getting were making him more and more uncomfortable, and he was regretting asking in the first place, despite how much he still wanted to see the Surface for himself. “Gren, please calm down,” he finally managed._ _

__“Fuck that shit, Bigby! You better feel fucking _ **lucky--**_ ” Gren finally at least lowered his volume, “that I ain’t chasing after Feather Tail over there right now reporting your stupid ass.”_ _

__“J-Just forget I brought it up, Gren, you’re drawing too much attention.” Bigby nervously looked everywhere but directly at Gren. The flames at their feet looked reeeeaaaallly interesting at that moment._ _

__“Damn fuckin’ right you’re forgettin’ about it!” An indicative hurgle and turgle from the Hellmouth cut Gren’s attention from Bigby ( _Finally_ , Bigby thought.). “You’re really fuckin’ lucky that I can’t chew your stupid ass out any more right now, Bigby.” He walked up uncomfortably close to Bigby (any closer and he could have kissed him) and muttered under his breath, “You better not fuckin’ bring this shit up again, Bigby, because next time, I ain’t gonna be so nice and forgivin’.” _ _

__Before Bigby could debate Gren’s definition of “nice and forgivin’,” Gren huffed out a harsh breath, before taking off to the Hellmouth for his next Surface duty, whatever that may be. He stood frozen there, frightened by Gren’s words, but-- and if the Demon were still there he would definitely have laid it on him some more-- but he felt more determined somehow to go to the Surface. To see how long it would be before anyone could miss him._ _

__“Hey, Hellbreather, I’m freezing over here!” a voice snapped him back from his frozen state. It took him a moment before his body could run back on autopilot mode, doing the one thing he was designed and destined to do-- feeding the Hellfire with his breath._ _

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hoped you are enjoying this! This was only supposed to be a one-shot for Snowby Week, but then I lost control of this story. :') More Demon Summoning College AU shenanigans to come!
> 
> I encourage you to check out my other stories on here, and to follow me on tumblr at pietromaximdotmov!


End file.
